Convergence: the next big step

Recently, web based multimedia services have gained popularity and have proven themselves to be viable means of communication. This has inspired the telecommunication service providers and network operators to reinvent themselves to try and provide value added IP centric services. There was need for a system which would allow new services to be introduced rapidly with reduced capital expense (CAPEX) and operational expense (OPEX) through increased efficiency in network utilization. Various organizations and standardization agencies have been working together to establish such a system. Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a result of these efforts. IMS is an application level system. It is being developed by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and 3GPP2 (3rd Generation Partnership Project 2) in collaboration with IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union – Telecommunication Standardization Sector), and ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) etc. Initially, the main aim of IMS was to bring together the internet and the cellular world, but it has extended to include traditional wire line telecommunication systems as well. It utilizes existing internet protocols such as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting protocol), and COPS (Common Open Policy Service) etc, and modifies them to meet the stringent requirements of reliable, real time communication systems. The advantages of IMS include easy service quality management (QoS), mobility management, service control and integration. At present a lot of attention is being paid to providing bundled up services in the home environment. Service providers have been successful in providing traditional telephony, high speed internet and cable services in a single package. But there is very little integration among these services. IMS can provide a way to integrate them as well as extend the possibility of various other services to be added to allow increased automation in the home environment. This thesis extends the concept of IMS to provide convergence and facilitate internetworking of the various bundled services available in the home environment; this may include but is not limited to communications (wired and wireless), entertainment, security etc. In this thesis, I present a converged home environment which has a number of elements providing a variety of communication and entertainment services. The proposed network would allow effective interworking of these elements, based on IMS architecture. My aim is to depict the possible advantages of using IMS to provide convergence, automation and integration at the residential level

Plataforma de serviços em redes de próxima geração (IMS)

Mestrado em Engenharia de Computadores e TelemáticaNuma tentativa de atrair novos clientes e manter os actuais, os operadores de telecomunicações procuram novas plataformas e tecnologias que lhes permitam o desenvolvimento rápido e eficiente de novos serviços. A arquitectura IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) normalizada pelo Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), inclui a capacidade de adicionar, modificar e remover sessões durante uma sessão multimédia, abrindo um novo leque de serviços combinando simultaneamente componentes de voz e dados entre outros componentes de Media. O IMS define uma arquitectura independente da rede de acesso, separando claramente o nível de transporte, o nível de controlo e o nível de serviços. No nível de serviços residem as Plataformas de Serviço (Service Delivery Platforms – (SDPs)), que controlam toda a lógica de execução de serviços. SDPs são uma nova aproximação arquitectural que tem como finalidade garantir o rápido desenvolvimento e execução de novos serviços multimédia, de um modo económico e simples. Tipicamente, as SDPs deverão fornecer um ambiente de criação, execução e gestão de serviços permitindo uma abstracção do ambiente de acesso ao serviço. A indústria das telecomunicações reconheceu a necessidade das SDPs, principalmente se estiverem de acordo com especificações industriais e construídas no topo de arquitecturas normalizadas (como é o caso do IMS). Um dos problemas inerentes às SDPs consiste em perceber como tirar proveito de serviços distribuídos pelas várias plataformas (tradicionais/legadas, SIP/IMS, etc.), de uma forma dinâmica, de modo a construir um serviço composto (Service Bundling) de maior valor para o utilizador final. O trabalho apresentado nesta dissertação de mestrado, foi o resultado de um estudo de toda a envolvente em torno das redes de próxima geração, analisando ainda detalhadamente a camada superior de serviços (plataforma de serviços) que irá, num futuro próximo, ter um papel fundamental na obtenção de receitas por parte do operador, dando ainda destaque aos elementos de taxação da arquitectura IMS. Para demonstrador, foi desenvolvido um Enabler de Charging e um conector Diameter experimentais para tarifar um serviço de Vídeo Portal numa rede IMS e um serviço de chamadas de utilizadores IMS-PSTN com tarifação em tempo real, isto é, elaboração de um serviço pré-pago. ABSTRACT: In an attempt to attract new customers and keeping the current ones, telecommunication operators are now searching new platforms and technologies for enabling fast and efficient new services development. The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture, standardize by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), includes capabilities to add, modify and remove sessions during an ongoing multimedia session, opening the opportunity for creating new services that allow combining voice, data and other media types simultaneously. IMS defines an access independent architecture, composed by three separated layers: the transport layer, the control layer and the service layer. In the service layer we can find the Service Delivery Platforms (SDPs), which contains all the service execution logic. SDPs are a new architectural approach intended to enable the rapid development and deployment of new converged multimedia services. SDPs should typically provide a service creation, execution and management environment, and a network abstraction layer. The telecommunications industry has recognized the need for an SDP, particularly, one that conforms to industry standards and are built on top of a standard architecture (IMS case). The problem lies on how to profit with the different services distributed by different platforms (legacy, SIP/IMS, etc.) in a dynamic way, allowing the creation of value added compose service for the end user. The work here presented on was the result of a detailed study about new next generation networks, in particular the application layer, which in a near future, will produce high revenues for the operators at the 3GPP environment. This will be based on the well defined 3GPP Charging Framework for the IMS architecture. A demonstrator was developed using an experimental Charging Enabler and a Diameter Resource Adaptor to allow charging an IMS Video Portal service and IMS user calls to PSTN – PC2Phone service, allowing online (real time) charging, more concretely pre-paid services

Sinalização de media gateways em redes de próxima geração

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrónica e TelecomunicaçõesCom o grande crescimento das comunicações móveis e fixas, o acesso à Internet tornou-se cada vez mais numa exigência, colocando à industria das Telecomunicações, especialmente aos operadores, grandes desafios. Serviços comuns como chamadas de voz, podem agora ser oferecidos pelos Internet Service Providers (ISPs) aos seus clientes sobre a forma de serviço Voice over IP (VoIP). Este serviço deixou de ser exclusivo das redes Public Switched Telephone Network/Integrated Services Digital Network (PSTN/ISDN) e passou a ser fornecido também na Internet. Mas devido à necessidade de manter as tradicionais redes PSTN/ISDN, houve a necessidade de criar um ambiente de convergência, não só para estas redes mas também para outros tipos de redes de acesso, independentemente da tecnologia. É neste campo que os organismos de normalização e os operadores têm dado os seus contributos, criando uma rede de controlo e de transporte comum baseada em IP para a convergência de serviços. Inicialmente o 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) definiu uma arquitectura de convergência móvel com a rede IP, constituída por elementos de controlo, transporte e serviço, de nome IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). Mais tarde, esta arquitectura serviu de base (core) para o grupo TISPAN do European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI) na normalização das Redes de Próxima Geração. Esta Dissertação pretende dar uma resposta à convergência fixo-móvel no âmbito da arquitectura PSTN/ISDN Emulation Subsystem (PES) do TISPAN. Este sistema permite que todos os clientes de uma Rede de Próxima Geração de um operador acedam a serviços das redes PSTN/ISDN e Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) de uma forma simples e imperceptível. Com este intuito foram desenvolvidos cenários de testes para os sistemas Trunking e de Acesso da arquitectura PES, tendo como objectivo final a sua integração na plataforma de próxima geração Service Handling on ip NETworks (SHipNET). Esta Dissertação experimenta várias situações reais de chamadas de voz sobre os cenários de testes, e inicia a implementação de um novo elemento definido para a arquitectura PES, Access Gateway Control Function (AGCF), para o controlo de Media Gateways nas redes de Acesso. ABSTRACT: With the big growth of mobile and fixed communications, Internet access has become a requirement, putting the telecommunication industry, and especially the operators, in front of a major challenge. Services such as voice calls can now be offered by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to their customers. This service is no longer exclusive of Public Switched Telephone Network/Integrated Services Digital Network (PSTN/ISDN) and is now provided also through the Internet. But, because of the need to maintain the traditional PSTN/ISDN networks, there was a need to create a convergence, not only for these networks but also for other types of access networks, regardless of technology. The standards bodies and operators have made their contributions to create a network of control and transport policy, based on IP, for the services convergence. In the beginning the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) defined an architecture for mobile convergence with IP network, made up of control, transport and service elements, called IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). Later, the core IMS served the ETSI TISPAN group in standardization of Next Generation Networks. This thesis aims to give an answer for fixed-mobile convergence within the architecture defined by TISPAN PSTN/ISDN Emulation Subsystem (PES). This system, formed by a Trunking, originally defined by the 3GPP IMS, and Access part, allows all customers of a Next Generation Network operator, access to PSTN/ISDN and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) network services in a simple way. With this purpose, scenarios were developed for Trunking and Access systems of PES arquitecture, with the goal to integrate into the next generation platform Service Handling on ip NETworks (SHipNET). This thesis tests several real situations of voice calls on testing scenarios, and begins the implementation of a new element defined for PES arquitecture, Access Gateway Control Function (AGCF), for Media Gateways control purpose in access networks

A structural and functional specification of a SCIM for service interaction management and personalisation in the IMS

The Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a component of the 3G mobile network that has been specified by standards development organisations such as the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and ETSI (European Telecommunication Standards Institute). IMS seeks to guarantee that the telecommunication network of the future provides subscribers with seamless access to services across disparate networks. In order to achieve this, it defines a service architecture that hosts application servers that provide subscribers with value added services. Typically, an application server bundles all the functionality it needs to execute the services it delivers, however this view is currently being challenged. It is now thought that services should be synthesised from simple building blocks called service capabilities. This decomposition would facilitate the re-use of service capabilities across multiple services and would support the creation of new services that could not have originally been conceived. The shift from monolithic services to those built from service capabilities poses a challenge to the current service model in IMS. To accommodate this, the 3GPP has defined an entity known as a service capability interaction manager (SCIM) that would be responsible for managing the interactions between service capabilities in order to realise complex services. Some of these interactions could potentially lead to undesirable results, which the SCIM must work to avoid. As an added requirement, it is believed that the network should allow policies to be applied to network services which the SCIM should be responsible for enforcing. At the time of writing, the functional and structural architecture of the SCIM has not yet been standardised. This thesis explores the current serv ice architecture of the IMS in detail. Proposals that address the structure and functions of the SCIM are carefully compared and contrasted. This investigation leads to the presentation of key aspects of the SCIM, and provides solutions that explain how it should interact with service capabilities, manage undesirable interactions and factor user and network operator policies into its execution model. A modified design of the IMS service layer that embeds the SCIM is subsequently presented and described. The design uses existing IMS protocols and requires no change in the behaviour of the standard IMS entities. In order to develop a testbed for experimental verification of the design, the identification of suitable software platforms was required. This thesis presents some of the most popular platforms currently used by developers such as the Open IMS Core and OpenSER, as well as an open source, Java-based, multimedia communication platform called Mobicents. As a precursor to the development of the SCIM, a converged multimedia service is presented that describes how a video streaming application that is leveraged by a web portal was implemented for an IMS testbed using Mobicents components. The Mobicents SIP Servlets container was subsequently used to model an initial prototype of the SCIM, using a mUlti-component telephony service to illustrate the proposed service execution model. The design focuses on SIP-based services only, but should also work for other types of IMS application servers as well